I just got my new rig and was installing LibreOffice. Since I want to keep my primary drive, the SSD, as clear as possible, I installed it on the secondary drive, which is my HDD. When I was installing the program the default path was "C:\Program Files (x86)\LibreOffice 4". I changed it to "D:\Program Files (x86)\LibreOffice 4", then decided I didn't really need it to be in the Program Files (x86) folder, so I just put it in "C:\LibreOffice 4".

My question... is there any reason to install programs in a Program Files (x86) higher level folder? And if there is, does this only apply on the primary, OS drive? Thanks for any help.

The only reasoning that comes to mind ont he folders, is that occasionally (libreoffice isn't one, dont think), you get a program that gets confused, if it isn't installed in the default location....

You can put them whever you want, to be honest... although sticking it in the /windows folder isn't advised.

May I ask what your purpose is in keeping the ssd as clear as possible? If you don't store stuff on it, you don't get the speed boost. You're NOT going to wear it out with normal usage... but if it's of concern, go back and shrink the partition on it so that you're only using, say, 400-450 gigs, and leave the spare space free.

Once you do this, the drive will still use the unpartitioned space as 'spare' area, and it will have the effect of reducing wear on the drive even further... I use this trick with my raid 0's to help keep things relatively defragmented. Trim still doesnt seem to be functioning on my system for some reason.

(spare area gets written to first before the drive starts erasing blocks to make room... since the unpartitioned area is free, it won't have to write around/move anything to perform writes, which prevents fragmentation and slowdown)

My advice? Use the ssd just like a normal system drive. If you have a lot of data, stick THAT on the bulk data drive, not the programs. Use the partition trick if it makes you feel better, and it WILL help with fragmentation, although your system should trim properly given the current state of things.

This might help. Basically they've separated the previous 'Program Files' directory into two - one for 32bit software (x86) and one for 64bit software to avoid one interfering with the other. Feel free to do exactly as you did, override the default and put it anywhere you like. Have yet to see any issues in doing that. Anything that 'needs' to be on the O/S drive (like under Windows/System32) will still end up there.

May I ask what your purpose is in keeping the ssd as clear as possible?

I wasn't being "clear' in my statement. I meant that I wanted to keep my SSD clear of programs I would seldom use and don't need to be as quick as possible, like LibreOffice. I plan on using the SSD for games. I just installed Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag on the SSD and holy smokes, it uses 25GB. A few more of those and that SSD will be filled up pretty fast.

Thanks for posting the link, there's some interesting information there. I'll probably just use the default path from now on, just changing the "C" to a "D" as needed.

This is what I do. Besides the previously mentioned issue where some programs don't like (And I have run into programs that REQUIRE installing it on the C: drive, I like the program files folder to keep things organized.